Seyfarth Shaw, LLP

Seyfarth Shaw, LLP News

With the Trump administration pulling back on some traditional consumer protection activities by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, some states, including Illinois, are stepping in to try to continue the work of the bureau, which had been created under former President Obama, ostensiblyas part of the federal response to the Great Recession.

A group of companies facing racial discrimination lawsuits for allegedly passing over black workers in favor of Hispanic workers when hiring temporary workers, failed in their attempt to have the complaints dismissed.

A federal judge has dispatched to arbitration a lawsuit brought against ride-hailing service Lyft by a group of former drivers who claim other drivers harassed and intimidated them, leading to retaliation and termination from Lyft when they filed police reports.

A recent ruling by a federal judge that non-Illinois residents cannot participate in a class-action suit has far-reaching implications, according to a local attorney. The ruling came in the case of Joshua DeBernardis v. NBTY and United States Nutrition, the makers of the supplement Body Fortress 100 percent Glutamine Powder.

In the wake of the Trump administration's decision to stop drafting new regulations on the accessibility of "websites, furniture and non-fixed equipment," a labor and employment attorney says this area of law could remain open for a while, as the courts work through the questions in a patchwork of judicial decisions.

A decision by a federal appeals court to uphold a settlement awarding attorneys more in fees than was paid to class members in total should serve as an "eye-opener" for the public and businesses concerning the nature of class action litigation in U.S. courts, said a local attorney who defends employers against such suits.

CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) – A closely watched Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) case could have bearing on Illinois' one-of-a-kind biometric privacy law after an appeals court ruled last month the plaintiff alleged no actual harm, an attorney who defends businesses against such cases said during a recent interview.

A federal appeals court in Chicago has ruled a group of assistant managers suing Jimmy John’s over their treatment can proceed with lawsuits against both the parent company and its franchisees, even though a federal district judge had said they had to wait to sue the franchisees until they progressed further in their class action against the sub sandwich chain.

A class action fraud complaint against Wilson Sporting Goods over youth baseball bats has been given the green light, for now - though the case may now have some holes in the swing, after a judge’s ruling on the company’s attempt to send the lawsuit to the showers.

Three class action lawsuits against McDonald’s, Grubhub and Kmart, alleging those companies’ apps and websites violated federal disability law because they were not easily accessible to the blind have been settled in recent days, according to federal court records.

Lawsuits claiming business websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities have spiked nationwide in the last two years, surging from at least 57 in 2015 to at least 432 in 2017, according to a count tabulated by the Chicago-based law firm of Seyfarth Shaw.

Facing a growing number of lawsuits over its alleged treatment of assistant store managers, sub sandwich restaurant chain Jimmy John’s has asked a Chicago federal judge to determine exactly how much responsibility it should bear for how its franchisees classify, pay and manage those assistant managers.

A recent $1.9 million settlement by Rosebud Restaurants with the Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is just one more example of why businesses should proactively adopt strategic hiring rules, an expert on discrimination law says.

On July 1, Cook County's new mandatory paid sick leave ordinance will take effect. And employers would do well to learn if the ordinance will apply to them and to acquaint themselves with the "burdensome" rules, which were released to the public May 25, that the county will use to guide the implementation and enforcement of the ordinance.

Exercise equipment manufacturer Precor failed in its quest to get a judge to scuttle a federal class action complaint, which alleged the company sold treadmills it knew included inaccurate heart rate sensors.

The ruling of a Chicago federal judge in favor of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforcement case against retail giant Dollar General will strengthen the EEOC’s hand in bids to widen single claims of employment discrimination into "company-wide fishing expeditions," say two Chicago attorneys and labor law experts.